Breast ptosis (sagging breasts)

Breast pto­sis descri­bes the sag­ging of the breast. The nipp­le and glan­du­lar tis­sue drop to the level of the fold beneath the breast or below it.

Cau­ses

The main cau­ses are pregnan­cy and breast­fee­ding, signi­fi­cant weight fluc­tua­ti­on and natu­ral age­ing, in which skin and con­nec­ti­ve tis­sue lose firm­ness. Lar­ge, hea­vy breasts and gene­ti­cal­ly wea­k­er con­nec­ti­ve tis­sue also make sag­ging more likely.

Sym­ptoms

The breast looks emp­ty or elon­ga­ted, and the nipp­le points down­wards. Skin may rest on skin beneath the breast, lea­ding to fric­tion and irri­ta­ti­on. Pto­sis is gra­ded medi­cal­ly accor­ding to how far the nipp­le sits below the infram­amma­ry fold.

Tre­at­ment

Cor­rec­tion is achie­ved with a breast lift. Excess skin is remo­ved, the glan­du­lar tis­sue res­haped and the nipp­le repo­si­tio­ned hig­her. If volu­me is lack­ing, an implant can be added. An implant alo­ne wit­hout a lift is usual­ly insuf­fi­ci­ent for pro­no­un­ced pto­sis. Fur­ther pregnan­ci­es or weight chan­ges can alter the result again.

Matching tre­at­ment at Swiss Der­ma Cli­nic: Breast lift